Health Care Professionals Group

Should health care professionals be able to take part in assisting with the deaths of terminally ill patients?

Do you feel that health care professionals should be able to take part in assisting with the deaths of terminally ill persons who wish to die? Why or why not?

Public Comments

1. most don't want to take any part in it.
2. I most certainly do. A professional would not "muck it up", the way a layperson might. The correct dosage would be given and comfort and dignity would be maintained. As for whether or not medically assisted suicide is "right" or "wrong"... that's a decision that belongs with the individual, not the state.
3. No, their job is to save lives, not take them.
4. Washington state just passed the "Death with Dignity" initiative, which allows a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medicine to a terminally ill patient (after a protocol of confirmation etc.). The patient must administer the drug themselves, and I assume watched over by a professional. I voted yes on it. I'm not sure if you mean specifically administering the drug by the health professional though...
5. It's all a matter of culture and perspective. There are cultures so poor that they actually developed a belief that people should go take a long walk in the freezing wilderness to die before they deteriorate, because the body will be in the after life as it was in death. The truth is, in these areas (somewhere in Russia, and the Inuit people in Alaska), the economic conditions are so harsh that if you're not pulling your own weight, you could cause the whole community to suffer further poverty and perhaps die). So, are we really so poor that we can't afford the health care to keep poeple around to 92? Probably. And do these people even want to continue to fight, for what? There are people in nursing homes, begging to be taken off of their meds and let go. OK, so remove all meds. I think it a crime against the soul for anyone to actually assist, to get the process going any quicker than it already will be. It would seem that any instance in which a person contributes to death would ruin that person. Also, if any of us accept such a thing, then we are degrading our own values, and telling our society at large that murder is sometimes acceptable. I would stop there. Give pain meds, take away all life-sustaining equipment and meds, and let nature do its thing.
6. Its a tricky moral issue. I'm a qualified doctor, and I would have moral difficulties in taking part in euthanasia. At the same time I have heard of many cases of assisted suicide which I would find difficult to argue against. Indeed I have seen the suffering that long-term, debilitating illness has on sufferers and families. So I don't have a black and white answer! I don't believe its right to persist in keeping alive a person who has no quality of life and refuses treatment. But there is a difference in not treating and actively pursuing euthanasia.